Worth an Upgrade?

[Inserity]

Hello Tech-Forums,

It's been a while since I've posted on here. Previously I came seeking advice for my PC build in '08. I haven't been up to date as far as latest parts and I've surfed around but I couldn't find anything with my specific questions.

My brother has a dying computer and he asked if he could buy mine. This is my current PC:

Q9550 @ 3.6
ASUS P5Q Deluxe
Patriot 4GB DDR2 800
PowerColor 4870
Antec 1200
Corsair TX750

It's been working very well for the past year and a half. Thing is, I'm not really ready for an upgrade, yet I'd like to help my brother out. He doesn't do any gaming so I would be keeping the video card and maybe the PSU which I could replace with my older Rosewill 500W. He'll be using it for graphic design work (PS & AI) and some video editing, so he'll need some graphic power. I could probably give him my older 8800GT.

So I'd be left with a 4870 and a Corsair 750W. Would it be worth it to upgrade to something like an i7 or maybe switch to AMD? I've been an Intel fan for a long time but I wouldn't mind switching if it'd help me out in the long run.

Another question is, LGA 1156 and LGA 1366. I heard Intel has new Unlocked CPUs. Are they worth it over the current i7 920's and 930's or do they overclock just as well? The Unlocked CPUs use the 1156 socket right? Wouldn't 1366 be better in the long run?


Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I would go with an i7 920/930. The LGA1366 platform is reasonably priced and plenty powerful for gaming and media editing tasks. If you're fine with the 4870 then keep it, though I really like my 5870. I would keep the PSU as the other rig should run on the 500W, I have a Rosewill 500W on my server and it is a pretty good quality PSU (the black one with dual fans, Stallion Series I think).

The 700W would give you room to add another card in the future plus plenty of power for overclocking. The i7 920/930's are excellent overclockers although you definitely want to invest in a good heatsink or water cooling solution if you want to push the chip, the stock heatsink isn't terrible but it doesn't give you much overclocking room (running my 930 at 3.08GHz stock heatsink, full load at 70-71 C, might be able to push it a bit more though).

Also make sure you get a good motherboard. I would recommend a Gigabyte or Asus board, both seem to be very high quality brands. I decided on the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R because of the great price compared to a similar Asus board ($209 vs. $250-300) and I'm happy, it has plenty of overclocking and voltage tweaks to get your chip running perfectly.

 

[Inserity]

Thanks for the reply.

I currently have a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 cooler on my Q9550 so I'll be sure to get something similar for the i7. Although I'm not sure on specifics so I'll need some suggestions.

As for the mobo, I've been a Asus guy for a long time so good to hear they're still doing good. I tried a couple DFI boards in the past but they didn't work out well for me. But again, I'll need some suggestions on what chipsets and etc are good.

Any distinct differences between the 920 and 930? Is the 930 "newer"? It looks like it has similar price with more clock speed.

Edit: How's this Motherboard? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641